Analysing a Political Speech of PM Theresa May

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Student Guide

Introduction This dataset is of a speech by the British Prime Minister Theresa May and is an excellent example of a well-constructed piece of political discourse by a sophisticated practitioner of the art of persuading the general public. This particular speech was chosen as it was an important address for PM May after taking office when she needed to reassure the British public that she was a worthy successor to her predecessor David Cameron and that she had the vision to lead the British people. Analysing such speeches forms an important part of qualitative research in a number of disciplines as they embody how a person or persons wish to be seen by a group or groups of people. They are also interesting in that we can see how anyone delivering a speech or constructing a document, including a CEO’s report to shareholders, for example, seeks to achieve a position when addressing their audience.

The present research is part of a larger body of research into political discourse by Dr. Joe MacDonagh of the Institute of Technology Tallaght’s School of Business and Humanities. Previously he has conducted research looking at the cognitive complexity of political party leaders’ speeches. The data exemplar here, of PM Theresa May, is analysed from a Bakhtinian dialogical analysis (BDA) perspective, which helps us see to whom PM Theresa May is appealing and the rhetorical devices she uses to do so.

Analysing Speeches and Speech Acts

Page 2 of 10 Analysing a Political Speech of PM Theresa May SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 BDA looks at the rhetorical and discursive strategies used in text, such as in talk between people, published documents, and formal speeches such as we are looking at here. It also looks at how the subjective intent of the speaker frames what they say by anticipating what they believe is expected by their audience and by speaking accordingly. Hicks (2000) called this “ethical responsivity” to the other, i.e., the person or persons we believe we are addressing. Sullivan (2010) has written one of the definitive texts on BDA, and he also provides a highly useful analysis of the main types of qualitative research analysis, in addition to his own dialogical analysis.

BDA is based on the work of the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin (1986), in which he introduced ideas such as “doubled sided discourse,” where a number of “polyphonic” (complementary) or “heteroglossic” (disagreeing or dissenting) voices can be present in a text. Voice here does not necessarily mean a physical voice one can hear but can be, as Mishler (1999) points out, for example, the voice of authority or the voice of expertise. These voices can be used simultaneously to answer, and so be responsive to, the expectations of the people the writer or the listener believes they are addressing. BDA is thus very useful in social science research as it builds upon other social science methods by analysing what people say in various settings and the discursive strategies they use in doing so.

Data Exemplar: Prime Minister’s Speech Setting Out a Vision for the United Kingdom Political speeches are interesting because they can encapsulate hopes, fears, and aspirations. Consider iconic phrases such as Winston Churchill’s:

“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

Such speeches attempt to address the national mood and to reassure the nation

Page 3 of 10 Analysing a Political Speech of PM Theresa May SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 by identifying a difficulty and by saying that it will be overcome because the person delivering the speech has the vision and the strength to do so. This analysis of documented talk (Potter & Wetherell, 1987; Silverman, 2016) is highly prevalent, and the dataset analysed here is a speech by another Prime Minister that is well- constructed and succinct, at 629 words in length.

On 13 July 2016 outside 10 Downing Street, PM Theresa May addressed the nation and set out a vision for her tenure as British Prime Minister upon succeeding David Cameron. In the speech, Mrs. May sought to establish herself as a credible successor to Mr. Cameron and a worthy leader of the Conservative Party. In this manner, the speech fits into the template for modern party leaders’ speeches when Mrs. May set out aspirations and implied agreement with fundamental Conservative Party beliefs but also with a nod to parts of the electorate to whom she wanted to appeal.

Dialogical Analysis: From a Bakhtinian Perspective

Stage 1: Cleaning and Checking the Data As mentioned in my SAGE piece on ethnographic data (MacDonagh, 2018), it is important to “clean” and check any type of data, including speech data. In this present case, it involved going to the Downing St. website to see what had actually been released for the Prime Minister’s speech. A version of the speech was analysed in The Times newspaper, but this was incomplete, and so the version used here is the official one, as actually delivered by Mrs. May. For some types of speech analyses, researchers edit the text to include emphasis, pauses, and increases in volume, but this was not included in the dataset here as what was being analysed was the way in which PM May addressed her national audience and the substance of her speech. Once the data are cleaned, then we can move on to coding.

Stage 2: Coding There are well-regarded software packages for analysing qualitative data, such as NVivo. These require training and can be very time-efficient for large amounts of descriptive data but, like a statistical package for analysing numerical data, they still require you to know what the analysis is doing. No software analysis can do the thinking for you – they can process and reduce the data, but you have to draw the conclusions. For this example, I carried out this analysis without a software program to show how it can be done.

The first step is to read through the extract quickly, to get a sense of the length, structure, and rhythm of the piece, and you will be able to have some understanding of how it was delivered. Then read it through again, slowly, to see what ideas are being conveyed by the speaker.

The second step involves reading through the speech and making notes. What you highlight could be a word, a phrase, or even a description of what you believe is happening in the data.

Reading through the speech the first time, I felt that Mrs. May was deliberately using repetition. She repeats certain words and phrases like “we” to emphasise how she and her audience are part of the same community, e.g., “we will do, “we will rise to,” and “we will make.” She backs this up by the phrase “every one of us” and “whoever we are and wherever we’re from.”

For the third step, you will identify the meta or higher level themes. In dialogical analysis from a Bakhtinian perspective, it is important to look at the way that speakers position themselves in relation to their audience. The speakers know whom they are trying to address and thus those to whom they believe themselves answerable, using particular voices that are open to them. To analyse this, a researcher needs to identify themes that are explicitly and implicitly stated within

Theme 1: Establishing an Inclusive Community We can see this throughout the speech as the Prime Minister introduces strong themes related to exclusion, deprivation but ending with a shared national purpose. She begins the main part of the speech by praising her predecessor David Cameron. She also seeks to identify herself with Cameron as a one-nation Tory, breaking the divide between rich and poor:

“David Cameron has led a one-nation government, and it is in that spirit that I also plan to lead.”

In this, she is appealing to those in the electorate who turned off her party by the perception that they care only about privileged British citizens. This paragraph sets up a theme of unity and a shared love of country. In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, she may have been seeking to bring the nation together:

“ … we believe in a union not just between the nations of the United Kingdom but between all of our citizens, every one of us, whoever we are and wherever we’re from.”

Theme 2: Comprehending Her People’s Suffering She then seeks to answer the unstated question as to what she, an Oxford graduate daughter of a vicar and the leader of an upper middle class and right-of- centre party, could know about the plight of those who she seeks to include in her union of people. She does this by beginning a seven-part list, which involves the repetition of certain phrases to achieve rhetorical focus on certain ideas:

“If you’re [some difficult social category]… you’re/you/you’ll” [followed by a disadvantageous social outcome relative to

• poverty, • race and the criminal justice system, • race and the lack of educational access, • socio-economic status and poor tertiary educational access, • gender and earning level, • inadequate mental health services, and • age and difficulty buying a home.

For example:

“If you’re black, you’re treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you’re white.

If you’re a white, working-class boy, you’re less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university.”

These phrases were probably intended to appeal to the party’s current more liberal conservative support base and to act as a nod to those who don’t believe that the Conservative Party cares about them. In doing so, she is utilising a potentially dangerous strategy in that many Tory supporters believe that those who end up in these difficult situations may have themselves to blame for not having done enough to raise themselves out of their predicament, through enterprise and personal hard work. But to combat this danger, she continues and positions herself against the “people in Westminster” and with the people who have job, mortgage, and child education problems.

Theme 3: I Will Represent You, Not the Privileged Few She then steps outside of the rhetorical format to use her personal “I,” linked to the “you” of those living under these difficulties. Three times in the next paragraph

Page 7 of 10 Analysing a Political Speech of PM Theresa May SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 she says “I know,” as if to emphasise not only that she is aware of her peoples’ problems but to emphasise that she is Prime Minister and “the government I lead” will act in “your … interests” not those of the “privileged few.” The use of the “few” here is a use of former Labour leader Tony Blair’s 1997 campaign slogan – “rule for the many, not the few” – which was used by the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 General Election campaign.

But at this point, Mrs. May is seeking to establish distance from the common perception that her party represents the privileged few. She does this by stating that “control” will move to “you” – implicitly the many – instead of the “powerful,” “mighty,” “wealthy,” and “fortunate few.” She states that she will help “anybody, whatever your background, to go as far as your talents will take you.”

Theme 4: In the Face of Change We Can Be Great Having established a bond with the many, she reinforces it by stating the “we” of “our country” in how “we” “face … great national change.” The use of “great” is deliberate as she uses it to extract two meanings, as both adjective and proper noun, in describing the country as Great Britain rather than simply Britain or the United Kingdom. This sets up the penultimate sentence, that of Britain being “not for a privileged few, but for every one of us.” She avoids the use of “many,” as that would be echoing Tony Blair’s slogan, plus “every one of us” implies collectively those who have not and those who have – the implication being that have nots can become haves if they use their talents wisely.

Theme 5: To the Promised Land To finish, she re-emphasises the “we” of Britain and how together “we” will make it better; making all of the British people responsible for this answers the question of why it was not better before now, with the Conservative Party having been in power for six years; Mrs. May is the Moses leading them to the promised land,

Page 8 of 10 Analysing a Political Speech of PM Theresa May SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 and the previous leader, while good, did not have the vision, or “mission” to do so, which she implies she does.

Summary In this dataset, Prime Minister Theresa May staked her claim to be a worthy successor to her predecessor Mr. David Cameron. She did this by identifying what his legacy was and how she wanted to extend it in her time in office. To do this, she used voices of empathy, social concern, and by identifying a path to lead all British citizens to social inclusion. She emphasised community and herself not just as a powerful leader of the British government but one who was deeply committed to helping her fellow citizens to rise out of poverty and social deprivation. By doing this, she shows she will answer their needs and is someone who will speak for them and bring them to a better place.

You can see that in order to understand PM Theresa May’s speech, it is important to read closely the speech and make lots of notes, each time refining the analysis as you go through another version. Between each version of your analysis, it is important to reflect on what you have written, so that you question your assumptions, of which there may be many, in order to arrive at a fair and accurate analysis of the data.

Reflective Questions

1. How does Prime Minister May attempt to convince her audience that she will be a leader for all of Great Britain and how does she try to answer possible doubts about her and her party? 2. Examine the effectiveness, in your opinion, of the use of repetition and the use of the personal voice (“I” and “we”) by Prime Minister May to convey a sense of community between her and her audience. Does it

Page 9 of 10 Analysing a Political Speech of PM Theresa May SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 work? If so, how? 3. What other possible readings are possible of this dataset? What other perspectives could there be on what she says? To what other group or groups could she be appealing? 4. In the additional dataset, Mrs. May addresses the nation about her Chequers talks on Brexit. What is she trying to achieve in this, much shorter, speech? How does she attempt to do so? Does she succeed? If so, how? What themes do you see in that speech?

Further Readings Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays (V. W. McGee, Trans., C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Eds.). Austin: University of Texas Press.

Hicks, D. (2000). Self and other in Bakhtin’s early philosophical essays: Prelude to a theory of prose consciousness. Mind, Culture and Activity, 7(3), 227–242.

MacDonagh, J. (2018). Ethnographic research in an acute hospital after an organizational merger. SAGE Research Methods Cases. doi:http://dx.doi.org/ 10.4135/9781526447470

Mishler, E. G. (1999). Storylines: Craftartists’ narratives of identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Potter, J., & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and social psychology: Beyond attitudes and behaviour. London, UK: SAGE.

Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. London, UK: SAGE.

Sullivan, P. (2010). Qualitative data analysis using a dialogical approach. London, UK: SAGE.

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